Jerry Osteryoung
Jerry Osteryoung is a consultant to businesses—he has directly assisted over 3,000 firms. He is the Jim Moran Professor of Entrepreneurship (Emeritus) and Professor of Finance (Emeritus) at Florida State University. He was the founding Executive Director of the Jim Moran Institute and served in that position from 1995 through 2008. His latest book, coauthored with Tim O’Brien, “If You Have Employees, You Really Need This Book,” is a bestseller on Amazon. Email Jerry @ jerry.osteryoung@gmail.com
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Problem Employees or Problem Managers?
When I ask managers what their biggest challenge is, it seems like they always say the same thing: problem employees. This is something every business and organization struggles with.
Slogans and Taglines
Countless businesses spend many hours and a lot of money developing taglines and slogans to try to convince their customers they offer something others do not. When used correctly, taglines can be very effective.
Let Your Expectations Be Known
Managing people requires a broad array of skills, but basic management skills are sometimes overlooked. Simply put, staff will not know what to do unless they are told what results are expected.
Communication with Your Customers
Communications are so important to each and every business. Most issues with communications are easy to fix, but you first need to be aware of the problem. Then you need to act on it.
Incentives and Unintended Consequences
Incentives can be a mighty force in any organization. When properly structured, incentives can cleanly and clearly align the goals of the individual with that of the organization.
Make Customer Relationships Deep as Well as Broad
Doing business of any kind obligates you to establish and maintain relationships with your customers. The deeper your relationships, the better off you are because they become much harder to break.
You Should Not Avoid Confrontation
Confrontation is one of those things that almost every manager hates. Fearing that an employee may “lose it” or act out, many managers will delay confrontation or even avoid it altogether. As uncomfortable as confrontation is, however, the cost of avoiding it is often very high.
Identify Problems Before They Impact Your Customers
Every organization will have to deal with customer issues at one time or another since no one and nothing is perfect. These product or service problems can be caused by anything from computer malfunctions to failure by a supplier to deliver.
Internal Customer Service
Most people—even I am guilty sometimes—worry only about how customers of the business (external customers) are treated and put little emphasis on how the staff serves one another or their vendors (internal customers).
Good Accounting is so Important
Great accounting is so important for each and every business, but too many are lacking in this area. Most use standard income statements and balance sheets, but there is so much more information business owners need that is not available in these basic financial statements.